Aflia Cencin leaned heavily against the unadorned staff as she gingerly walked down the hall. Her new claws ticked on the stone tiles and her wings flexed sporadically, not quite flailing as she tried to keep her balance. Her back still hurt where the incisions had scarred over with the help of a healing potion, but she was eager to be mobile again. She needed to get back to Trebor, but to do that she needed to speak with Mul and visit Armageddon Reef.

Aflia had not spent the time she had been bedridden idly. Days of Falling Skies had proven most informative, being the closest thing available to a neutral and unbiased account of the sources and effects of the powers unleashed upon Alexandria to transform it into Armageddon Reef.

The Seminal War began with the selection of a trio of new Overlords know as the Three. In the time before the Seminal War, the Overlords had been district managers and overseers. Most had been fair-minded, or at least kept their petty cruelties to a minimum and away from the public eye. The Three were advocates of a different agenda, consolidating power in the hands of the Overlords as a 'public safety measure.' The resulting upticks in racism, graft, corruption, and intolerance as the Three played one group off against another for their own ends eventually spiraled almost out of control. Only almost, because the Three somehow kept enough control over the situation to keep the 'game' going.

But with so many factions in play, the Three becoming more megalomaniacal by the day, and and so much hatred flowing in the streets, the explosion was inevitable. The Blood of the Dragon was the first to fall, and he did not fall quietly. A spellweaver of renown, he was accosted on the street and attacked by assailants unknown, presumably on racial or religious grounds. The reason that the identity of the attackers isn't known is that they were not quite successful enough in their efforts to kill the Blood of the Dragon. Mortally wounded, he channeled all of his formidably magical reserves and the entirety of his remaining lifeforce into a single suicidal death-curse. The resulting detonation leveled the entire city block, heavily damaged the surrounding blocks, and set much of what was left on fire for good measure.

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From there the Three's 'game' started to come apart at the seams. Rioters took to the streets and much more of Alexandria was damaged in the week-long period of anarchy. The Three eventually staged a massive coup, followed by purges of their own ranks and genocides against any non-silithid they could find. The Voice of the Outsider appeared during the bloodbath, an individual acting for and against the Three towards its own unusual ends. Exactly what its plans were is unclear, but the resulting 'ascension' ceremonies (particularly their spectacular failures) the Three attempted in its wake caused quite a bit of disruption to their command structure. Enough to buy the rest of the world needed time.

When the dust began to clear, the Three had been disposed of and replaced by a new council of silithid Overlords bent on world domination. As they began to assemble their forces, the Flame in the Dark and the Breeze in the Sky put in their own contributions. The Flame in the Dark led an underground resistance movement that made excellent use of the caves beneath Alexandria. Inside of the first month, they had two divisions tied down. By the time that the final assault was made on Alexandria itself, they had three corps locked down on futile anti-insurgency operations. The Breeze in the Sky was no fighter, but instead the diplomat that made the anti-silithid alliance possible almost single-handed. That alliance didn't survive the end of the Seminal War, but its dissolution was peaceful enough.

The Keeper of Lore wasn't mentioned in Days of Falling Skies at all, which left Aflia to wonder what Denedar, Merrsshulk, and Sslyeth were getting at, mentioning that Title in conjunction with the others.The Keeper of Lore had been mentioned last, so perhaps it was the least of the Titles? And if the Title was small enough, then perhaps it had been lost when Alexandria had been destroyed?

There was a single endnote, a single one-line reference, that Aflia thought may eventually shed light on the issue. A name and position, mentioned in passing. Innoch, Chronicler of the Ironbark Mercenary company, formerly the Lorekeeper of the Alexandria Library.

Aflia knocked on the door to Lady SiDabolo's study, hoping she wasn't intruding. She was, but it went unnoticed by both Lady SiDabolo and Mul as they locked eyes and minds in a contest of wills. Mul was clearly hiding something, and Lady SiDabolo clearly wanted to know what it was. Aflia loudly rapped her staff on the doorframe to break up the staring contest. "As you two clearly don't want to talk to each other, can somebody answer some of my questions for once?"